【英文文学】Concerning Genealogies

1、【英文文学】Concerning GenealogiesPREFACEThis little book puts the pleasure of tracing ones ancestry within reach of those who have had no previous practice. It covers every phase of the subjectthe sources of information, the methods of research, the compiling, the printing, and the publishing of a genealogy.Strong emphasis is laid upon the importance of employing the historical method, without which no genealogical work can become authoritative. If we may judge from most of the family histories in pr

2、int, a vigorous protest against pernicious methods should be lodged with professional genealogists as well as with amateurs.Special attention is also called to the radically different plans for genealogical works, one tracing the many descendants of a common ancestor, the other tracing the many ancestors of a common descendant. There is a general drift toward the latter, many having discovered the fascination of exploring their direct lines of descent who would not care to trace the collateral b

3、ranches of a family tribe. But a detailed plan of work devoted to the exhibit of the many lines of ones own ancestry is here formulatedPg 6 for the first time. This Grafton Plan, as we have called it,already carried into execution, and approved by experience,will appeal to thousands for whom tribal genealogies have little interest.Our little volume also offers something more than a mere theory of how to proceed in genealogical work. It tells of labor-saving notebooks devised for each kind of gen

4、ealogy, and explains ways in which our own genealogical department is placed at the service of the reader.Frank Allaben.I ANCESTRY HUNTINGEveryone has leisure moments which are apt to hang heavy upon ones hands unless employed in some sort of recreation. One turns to golf and outdoors, another goes forth with gun or rod, a third arms himself with a camera. Many dabble a little in science. Some take to the telescope and star-gazing, while the microscope claims others, who haunt scummy ponds with

5、jars and bottles in search of diatoms, and other denizens of a drop of stagnant water. One goes in for bugs, another for ferns or fungi. Others, of a bookish turn of mind, do their hunting in the dark corners of second-hand bookstores, hoping to stumble upon a first edition or some other treasure.But it is doubtful if the whole range of hobbies can produce anything half so fascinating as the hunt for ones ancestry. This combines the charm and excitement of every other pastime. What sportsman eve

6、r bagged such royal game as a line of his own forebears? What triumph of the rod and reel ever gave the thrill of ecstasy with which we land an elusive ancestor in the genealogical net? If any proof be needed of the fascination of this pursuit, behold the thousands who are taking it up! The nooks andPg 10 crannies of civilization are their hunting-groundsany corner where man has left a documentary trace of himself. Behold them, eager enthusiasts, besieging the libraries, poring over tomes of dee

7、ds and wills and other documents in State and county archives, searching the quaint and musty volumes of town annals, thumbing dusty pages of baptismal registers, and frequenting churchyards to decipher the fast-fading names and dates on mossgrown tombstones, yellow and stained with age, or cracked and chipped by the frosts and rains of many seasons!A tidal wave of ancestry-searching has indeed swept over the country. Genealogical and biographical societies have been organized. Periodicals have

8、sprung up which confine themselves exclusively to this subject. Newspapers are devoting departments to it. The so-called patriotic societies and orders have become a host, with branches in nearly every State. They count their members by tens of thousands, their rolls are steadily increasing, and new societies are constantly being organized. There is scarcely an achievement in which our ancestors took part which has not been made the rallying-point of some flourishing society. All these draw life

9、 and nourishment from the mighty stream of genealogical research. We must prove that we have had ancestors, and that one or more of them had the distinction celebrated by the particular organization at whose door we knock for admission.Librarians and the custodians of public recordsPg 11 bear witness to this great movement. The libraries have become wonderfully popular, thronged by multitudes who have enrolled themselves in the army of amateur genealogists. So onerous has become the work of handing out historical and genealogical books that in some large libraries such works have been gathered into alcoves which are thrown open to the public, where the ancestry-hunter may help himself.Formerly such public records as deeds and wills constituted the special preserve of the lawyer. But his monopoly is a thing of the past. The genealogist has invaded this domain and established equal rights. He still leaves to the lawyer the

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